Roster Analysis: Revs' late-November roster decisions look relatively easy

There’s a sad fact of pro sports, folks: roster turnover happens.

Players that don’t cut the mustard — and that includes fan favorites — are given their walking papers, or are traded/transferred to other teams. A good portion of the roster stays put, still in the middle of their deals, or have inked new ones thanks to their performances. Some are at the end of their contracts and would like a fresh opportunity at a new location. That happens.

And as we’re now within the final three months of the MLS regular season, some players will soon realize they are playing for next year’s club option or ultimately playing their way toward an inevitable release.

After one year in Foxborough when November arrives, Brad Friedel will want to make this Revolution roster his own, with players he acquires. Certain players from the Jay Heaps Era have found themselves falling down the depth chart as newer players enter the picture.

Since we’ve been on the Revolution beat, we feel we know this team pretty well in terms of week-to-week performances, or lack thereof. We don’t know exactly what the club will do when late November comes along in terms of roster moves. There are loads of variables at play, such as contract length, that aren’t released to the masses.

Case in point: at the start of 2016, Leominster native Diego Fagundez signed a multi-year contract extension with the Revolution. How many years is multi-year, exactly? We don’t know. It could be two. It could be three. It could be four. It could be five.

That being said, we’re going to try and step into the front office for a few minutes and try to figure out who is playing their last 12 matches in a Revolution shirt, and who’ll be sticking around when the calendar turns to the 2019 season.

I’ve identified six players that I believe will leave Foxborough, as well as five others who may find their way headed to the exits at the end of the season.

SEND US A POSTCARD, WILL YOU?

Claude Dielna, Brian Wright, Juan Agudelo, Wilfried Zahibo, Femi Hollinger-Jansen, Gabriel Somi

You will notice that two of the listed players are Friedel acquisitions, while the other four are holdovers from the last regime; when I wrote this on Monday morning, Krisztian Nemeth was still on the roster, and I had him out of here at the end of the season, as well… just call me prescient.

Dielna is a Designated Player and has a high salary, but he has been at the heart of some of the Revs’ recent collapses; we’ve said it before, Dielna does not necessarily play with tact (hands like a cement truck), and that has led him to suffer a couple of disciplinary suspensions this year.

Zahibo, despite some early helpers, doesn’t cover as much ground as we’d like. He has a habit of being slow to react.

Both Wright and Hollinger-Jansen take up a lot of space on a crowded bench, not getting anything resembling workable minutes with the first team; they may be better served on a USL side where they can get actual playing time and improve (hello, Hartford Athletic).

Somi, we liked how he fought back even after getting spun around (the Houston game), but he’s been too slow to handle his responsibilities at left back ever since, and has seemingly fallen out of favor.

Agudelo … it’s sad to say goodbye to the big man, but let’s face it: he has not turned out to be the player we thought we would get when he returned to Foxborough at the start of 2015. He’s scored 31 goals in 4 ½ seasons, with only two goals scored this year. And sure, he hasn’t received all the opportunities that a Teal Bunbury or a Cristian Penilla has received this year. He hasn’t scored more than eight goals in a season, and everyone has thought that he would just be the Next Big Thing in American soccer since he made his debut in a US national team friendly against South Africa in 2010. He has great skill, yes, but he has not improved as a goal scorer to truly put this team over the top.

PLAYERS WHO COULD BE OUT THE DOOR

Kelyn Rowe, Andrew Farrell, Antonio Delamea, Chris Tierney, Cody Cropper

All five are holdovers from the past.

Rowe, while he does incredible work with kids fighting cancer, has apparently dropped down the depth chart, despite his versatility; he hasn’t found the back of the net this year, and when he does shoot, he blazes over. He may have time remaining on his contract, possibly a year or so left, and like Nemeth, should garner some allocation money or a draft pick.

Farrell, while he has played out of his mind over the last two months or so, has an understudy in Brandon Bye (Friedel’s draft pick) who has played incredibly well when he’s out there; Farrell is under contract through the end of the season. The big question is will general manager Michael Burns re-up him for another year? That’s a possibility, especially if the club can’t find a suitable replacement left back. Bye played fairly well out on the left against Orlando City at the weekend, so the club may feel there’s not a genuine, desperate need for one in the offseason. We’ll see on that end.

Delamea is generally a good defender; he may stay if there’s not another centerback in the mix over the winter. I wrote in my chat Thursday that he's been dependable and a quiet leader, and that I haven't found him to be at fault in the Revs' recent collapses.

So, too, may Cropper; he’s a good third option in keep, but he hasn’t had the opportunity to perform in matches, and has only made one match-day squad so far.

Tierney, the old Wellesley warhorse, will be coming back from his ACL injury, and will be 33 in January. So far, his rehab is going well. While the Revs could use his leadership in 2019, will he be on the senior roster, or in another capacity?

STAYING PUT

Jalil Anibaba, Scott Caldwell, Teal Bunbury, Diego Fagundez, Brandon Bye, Brad Knighton, Luis Caicedo, Matt Turner, Cristian Penilla

Some of these you may disagree with, and that’s fine. However, these players have been the most consistent when it comes to positive performances over longer stretches than just short gaps. Consistency matters.

For all of the problems of this latest stretch, Anibaba has been, for all intents and purposes, one of the better of the four in the back. He has played a ton of minutes in ’18, has come up with 20 blocked shots headed into the weekend, which shows his willingness to sacrifice his body for the Crayon Crest.

Caldwell … weren’t you out of your seat last Saturday when he went in on goal? He’s not hard to root for. Between him and Caicedo, they are 1a and 1b when it comes to the defensive midfield, in my opinion.

Bunbury is having a resurgence in 2018 with 11 goals; he’s finally found the right system to get the most out of him. Another year in Foxborough should give him the confidence moving forward with a chance to build on this season.

Fagundez … I’m a Fagundez apologist; I wouldn’t have this job if it weren’t for DF14 playing for the Revs. I've said it before: I like him as the No. 10, the offense has flowed with him there instead of out of the wings; look in years past where the defensive midfield has not found him, slowing an attack down. The Revolution don’t have that issue any longer.

Bye has tremendous potential to be an every weekend player for New England, and with him moving into left back after this past weekend, if he stays there (and we think he should) should give some stability to what has been the weakest spot in the XI in ‘18.

Knighton should get a new deal at the end of the season to back up Turner, and Penilla and Caicedo should have their buy clauses triggered by their performances. I can foresee the cheers when the Revs make that announcement, and the derision and scorn should the club not exercise the buy clauses. Those two have been rather incredible players.

INCOMPLETE DATA

Zachary Herivaux, Mark Segbers, Isaac Angking, Nico Samayoa, Cristhian Machado, Michael Mancienne

I think that’s relatively self-explanatory. Herivaux has only had limited time on the pitch, international minutes against Lionel Messi notwithstanding, while Segbers — possibly the striker of the future? — has spent most of his time in USL; he did have a goal in the US Open Cup tie. Angking hasn’t featured due to his illness, Samayoa has only played 12 minutes in the US Open Cup, Machado had a limited run-out against Orlando City, and Mancienne hasn’t played a Revs match yet.

We’ll bookmark this page, and we’ll return to it when the roster moves are made in November to see how we did.